The present invention relates to the field of mold making, and particularly to the manufacture of molds, such as for use with injection molding presses, from blocks of metal. More specifically, the present invention relates to software supported methods, systems and tools used in the design and fabrication of molds for custom plastic parts, and in presenting information to customers to help the customer design parts which minimize the cost of the mold and the cost of using the mold to produce the customer's part.
Injection molding, among other types of molding techniques, is commonly utilized to produce plastic parts from molds. Companies and individuals engaged in fabricating molds are commonly referred to as “moldmakers.” The moldmaking art has a long history of fairly gradual innovation and advancement. Molds are designed pursuant to a specification of the part geometry provided by a customer; in many cases, functional aspects of the plastic part also need to be taken into account. Historically, moldmaking involves at least one face-to-face meeting between the moldmaker and the customer, with complex communication between the moldmaker and the customer and complex decisions made by the moldmaker regarding the construction of the mold. More recently, this process has been automated to a significant degree, to assist in transmitting information between the moldmaker and/or the moldmaker's computer system and the customer, thereby realizing significant efficiencies and corresponding price reductions in the manufacture of molds and custom molded parts. Such automation is described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/114,893, 11/074,388, 11/035,648, 10/970,130, 10/325,286 (now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,699), and Ser. No. 10/056,755 (now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,200). While such software and automated methods have revolutionized the moldmaking process, additional benefits still can be obtained by creative and non-obvious modifications.